Tomopop Review: High Priestess Sena Kashiwazaki

When Boku Wa Tomodachi Ga Sukunai, or Hagani for short, debuted in October of 2011, I don't think anybody expected it to be as successful as it was. Typically for a show like Haganai, most companies would have had a ton of merch ready to be gobbled up. This time, we had to wait for quite a while before we got any prize figures, poseable miniatures or scaled statues.

However, the wait was worth it, as we've got some pretty nice figures since the show ended and in time for the sequel. One of those figures is from Megahouse, as part of their High Priestess line. Hit the jump to read about their version of the meaty eroge fan, Sena Kashiwazaki.

As per the usual, we start with Sena's box. It's bright and colorful, which reflects the lady held within the confines of cardboard and plastic. Besides that, there's nothing really special to it.

The plastic clamshell houses Sena, her base, and alternate face and an alternate hand. As she's vertically oriented, this saves a lot on space. If you're inclined to save your packages, you should be able to find a place to keep everything. Let's take Sena out, shall we?

Here she is! Right out of the box, I was impressed with how the sculptor captured Sena's personality. One of the things I like so much about her is the pure, happy energy that she seems to exert. It's what made me interested in her when I saw the first promotional images of Haganai and it carries over to Megahouse's figure.

I mean, look at that face. This girl looks so happy! You'll notice that I switched faces. I prefer this one over the stock face, as it does an even better job of catching Sena's saucy nature. Switching faces is an easy thing, requiring the removal of her bangs followed by the head proper. Fairly standard stuff.

Sena's butterfly hair clip is my favorite part of her design. It does a surprisingly good job of making her stand out and it matches with her eyes. I'm a sucker for that kind of thing. Here, a blue-green clear plastic is used for her hair clip, which I'm quite pleased with. It looks great against the shade of green used for her uniform and her blonde hair.

I'm also pleased with the darker green used for Sena's uniform. It compliments her skin tone and the color of her eyes and hair. On top of that, the actual paint job is great, with some nice green tonal shifts moving along the wrinkles of her shirt and the pleats of her skirt. Speaking of her skirt, I love the addition of the frosted plastic lace trim. It's a nice touch that accents the uniform.

I figured now was as good a time as any to include some cheesecake. I'll also include a transition about her socks, shoes and the base, but who are we kidding? No need to excuse the obvious fanservice!

On a more serious note, Sena's shoes and loafers have been sculpted and painted nicely. Her base is a light, transparant blue with her butterfly etched onto it. This is where my only problem with the figure comes in. As you can see, she's happily jutting her hand in the air whilst standing on one foot. While that looks great and communicates her zest for life, it also makes her a candidate for a bad case of the leans. Considering this is Megahouse, I'm pretty sure that her legs are made of sturdier materials, but be aware that you might have this lady toppling over at some point.

I mentioned earlier that Sena had an alternate hand. Her standard hand simply has her extending her fingers. However, when you remove that one and put the other one in...

Sena now holds a PSP! She's probably playing one of her dozens of galge on that thing. While the sculpt on thing is nice, I'm not too thrilled with the paint job on it. Especially when you consider how well the rest of the figure was done, the PSP looks sloppy and hastily painted. Despite those problems, I still have this one displayed, as it just looks nice to have something in her other hand.

All in all, I found Megahouse's take on Sena to be a delightful figure that captures the best parts of the character. It's bright, happy, colorful and full of personality and movement. My only real complaint is that she's standing on one foot and could suffer from the dreaded figure lean over time. If you can look past that, then I'd whole-heartedly recommend getting the High Priestess Sena Kashiwazaki.

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